The Government have introduced a number of measures to improve the criminal justice system in respect of the treatment of young offenders. We have tightened up the criteria for cautioning and introduced new standards for the supervision of young offenders in the community. The Crime (Sentences) Bill provides for the extension of electronic monitoring of curfew orders to 10 to 15-year-olds. In addition. the Government intend to publish a Green Paper on preventing children and young people most at risk of offending from becoming involved in crime.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list for each of the last three years the number of cases where the police have asked for charges to be brought against young offenders; and what percentage of such cases have resulted in a court conviction. [6174]

The Government have introduced a number of measures to ensure that the public are protected from persistent young offenders. We have strengthened the courts' powers for dealing with such offenders by increasing the maximum sentence for youth custody for 15 to 17-year-olds, by introducing long periods of
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detention for 10 to 13-year-olds for serious offences and by providing for a new sentence for persistent 12 to 14-year-old offenders.

The Crime (Sentences) Bill extends the electronic monitoring of curfew orders to 10 to 15-year-olds and gives youth courts the discretion to allow the identification of juveniles convicted of an offence.

The Government intend to publish a Green Paper on
preventing children and young people most at risk of offending from becoming involved in crime.

It is not the youth court itself that is intended to deter offending, but the sentences that the court passes on those whom it has found guilty. The Government collect data on re-conviction rates for sentences imposed on juvenile offenders aged 14 to 16 years. The latest available figures are for 1991 and are provided in the table.

Table 1: Reconviction rates within two years, based on the 1991 sentencing sample by age at sentence